Loyola Opens Up To Hire Evansville Assistant Coach

May 01, 1989|By Mike Conklin.

In what will be a change in direction for its basketball program, Loyola will name Will Rey as coach Monday morning in a press conference at its Water Tower campus.

The hiring of Rey, an assistant at Evansville, will break Loyola`s practice of getting its head basketball coach from within the ranks. The last coach hired by the school from the outside was George Ireland in 1951.

Rey will replace Gene Sullivan, who was asked to resign after an 11-17 finish last season. Sullivan, 149-114 overall, had been the school`s athletic director for two years before he replaced Jerry Lyne as coach in 1980. Lyne, a longtime assistant at the school, replaced Ireland in 1975.

Although Rey would neither confirm nor deny his appointment, he said:

``The Loyola situation is a great one with tremendous potential, and I certainly have an interest in it.

``You have a school with strong academic credentials as well as good basketball tradition. I`ve become especially familiar with it through my four years at Evansville.``

The selection of Rey ends several weeks of sifting through applications and interviews by Loyola Athletic Director Chuck Schwarz.

Bruno was an associate coach to Sullivan for eight years before leaving last season to return to De Paul. He and Rey were known to be the two finalists after they were called back for second interviews. The final decision was made by Loyola President Fr. Raymond Baumhart.

Rey never has headed a college program, but he does have considerable Chicago experience. In addition to attending Triton Community College and Northeastern Illinois, he was a head coach at Crete-Monee High School for two years and at Fenwick High School for three seasons. His teams had the reputation of playing strong defense.

As an assistant at Gordon Tech, he was part of a program that competed against Schwarz when he was a head coach at St. Laurence High School. Before starting at the high school level at Gordon, he spent five years coaching grammar school basketball in the city.

At Evansville, Rey has been an integral part of head coach Jim Crews`

revitalization of the Aces. This season, Evansville went 1-1 in the NCAA playoffs after getting an NIT bid last season.

At Loyola, he will inherit a program that has an experienced nucleus in high-scoring Keith Gailes, Keir Rogers and Doug Borders. Also, 6-foot-10-inch Omer Buyukaycan of Turkey and 6-9 Spyros Sakellarious of Greece, two promising players, are expected to be available next season, as will Joe Daughrity.

Daughrity sat out this season as one of Loyola`s numerous academic casualties, a problem that some say led to Sullivan`s downfall. The fact that the breakdown occurred after Bruno left appeared to weigh heavily in his favor for getting the job.

Loyola requires its athletes to maintain a 2-point overall grade average, higher than many rivals. Three past or present Rambler starters were lost last season for academic reasons. University officials have indicated they want entrance policies tightened.